About Me
- Pamela Clare
- I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.
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Showing posts with label Colonial American romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colonial American romance. Show all posts
Saturday, November 23, 2013
A holiday surprise!
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I have a holiday surprise for you!
UPON A WINTER’S NIGHT is a MacKinnon’s Rangers Christmas novella. I haven’t had anything for my historical readers since Defiant in July 2012, so it only seemed right that I end the year with a historical treat just for them. I didn’t say much about this because I wasn’t sure I’d finish it in time. But I have, and it will be out on Nov. 27.
That’s this coming Wednesday! I wanted you to have it in time for your Thanksgiving Weekend, and I’m high-fiving myself for making it happen.
The most important thing to say about this book is that KARL is on the cover. OK, maybe that’s not the most important thing, but it feels very important. You will remember him as the mostly naked star of the Defiant trailer. He was the one running around the forest carrying a musket. I am posting a gratuitous photo of Karl from the trailer shoot to jog your ovaries ... er, your memories.
In fact, the image for the cover was being shot by Jenn LeBlanc at Studio Smexy™ while I watched in the background, waiting to film the Connor/Lord William sequence for the trailer. Karl got up off the model, put on a shirt, picked up my musket, and filmed that scene right after this sequence of photos was taken.
Good times. So what was I talking about? Oh, yes!
This 26,000-word novella picks up one day after the epilogue of Defiant. It is a week before Christmas, and Lord William surprised them all the night before by leaving a letter and the cracked marble chess piece on the doorstep to Iain and Annie’s cabin. The story carries us through that week to Christmas and on to Hogmanay (New Year’s). Here’s the blurb:
Reunite with the MacKinnon brothers and their wives for Christmas—and a tale of love, new life, and redemption.
The war between Britain and the French is finally at an end, and the MacKinnons are looking forward to celebrating their first peacetime Christmas in five long years. While Iain and Annie have discovered that the pleasures of marriage grow deeper with time, Morgan and Amalie find themselves at bitter odds. Meanwhile, Connor and Sarah have a newborn son to cherish.
The family’s preparations for the holidays are interrupted when Iain learns that Britain has not paid the Rangers for the summer’s victorious campaigns. Unwilling to let men who fought under the MacKinnon name suffer deprivation at Christmastime, Iain, Morgan, and Connor leave the warmth of their frontier farm for Albany. There, they find their happy Christmas, and even their freedom, at risk at the hands of a ruthless British officer who holds a grudge against them.
With the men gone, Annie, Amalie, and Sarah do their best to prepare for the festivities despite differing traditions, a raging bull—and the gnawing fear that their husbands won’t make it home for Yule.
Events begin the day after the epilogue of Defiant ends. The story includes Joseph, Killy—and revelations about the fate of Lord William Wentworth.
It was a lot of fun to visit with these characters again and to move some of their story threads forward. There is a wedding at the end, but I won’t tell you whose it is. The story started as a 3,000-word mini-story that ran on a blog last year for a holiday contest. I’ve taken that blurb and transformed it, expanding it and bringing other characters into the story.
Upon A Winter’s Night will be out no later than Nov. 27 in all ebook formats via Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, iBooks and Kobo. And here’s some good news for those of you who hate ereaders: The novella will also be available in trade paperback through Amazon, though that may take an extra week or so. Stay tuned for updates!
In the meantime, thanks for all of the emails and messages about Striking Distance. What a whirlwind this has been — from release day to learning the book was a nominee for RT’s Best Romantic Suspense of 2013 to making the USA Today best-seller list. I was trying to write in the midst of that excitement, and, on top of everything else, my sister is visiting from Sweden.
Who said the holidays are crazy?
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
For those who love Colonial American romance
For some time now, I’ve been one of a handful of authors writing Colonial American romance. I say “one of a handful,” but in truth, I think I’m hard pressed to think of anyone else who’s writing stories set in this time and place.
BUT that has all changed. Donna Thorland debuts today with THE TURNCOAT, a romance set during the Revolutionary War. The story, published by Penguin NAL, focuses on a romance and conflict between a Colonial woman and a British officer.
Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:
Lovers on opposite sides of a brutal war, with everything at stake and no possibility of retreat.
Major Lord Peter Tremayne is the last man rebel bluestocking Kate Grey should fall in love with, but when the handsome British viscount commandeers her home, Kate throws caution to the wind and responds to his seduction. She is on the verge of surrender when a spy in her own household seizes the opportunity to steal the military dispatches Tremayne carries, ensuring his disgrace—and implicating Kate in high treason. Painfully awakened to the risks of war, Kate determines to put duty ahead of desire, and offers General Washington her services as an undercover agent in the City of Brotherly Love.
Months later, having narrowly escaped court martial and hanging, Tremayne returns to decadent, British-occupied Philadelphia with no stomach for his current assignment—to capture the woman he believes betrayed him. Nor does he relish the glittering entertainments being held for General Howe’s idle officers. Worse, the glamorous woman in the midst of this social whirl, the fiancée of his own dissolute cousin, is none other than Kate Grey herself. And so begins their dangerous dance, between passion and patriotism, between certain death and the promise of a brave new future together.
Sounds exciting to me!
I want to do all I can to help Ms. Thorland launch her story because I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to draw attention to stories set during this period. So many readers want to find something besides Regency romances. Even those for whom Regency romances are the gold standard want to read something different once in a while. But with so many titles released every month, “something different” can be hard to find.
Also, I suspect my readers — those who’ve loved the MacKinnon’s Rangers series or the Kenleigh-Blakewell series will enjoy the story and want to know about it.
Ms. Thorland contacted me about a month ago to tell me that she’d read my books and seen the trailer for DEFIANT and that she’d been inspired to make her own trailer. With a degree in cinema, she did a fantastic job of it.
Here’s what reviewers have said about the book so far:
“A combination of historical espionage and smoldering romance, Thorland’s first novel is a surprising and engrossing tale. Immersing the reader in 1777 Philadelphia, sweeping from decadent high-society balls to the filth of battlefield infirmaries, Thorland exhibits real passion for the time period. Fans of Philippa Gregory and Loretta Chase will find The Turncoat a thrilling read.” –Booklist
“The Turncoat is an exhilarating, intelligent, and superbly intricate spy thriller that keeps its tension vibrating and surprises crackling until the very last page.” –RT Book Reviews
“A stay-up-all-night, swashbuckling, breath-holding adventure of a novel…An extraordinary book about an extraordinary heroine.”—Lauren Willig, National Bestselling Author of the Pink Carnation series
“Fabulous…A world of spies, suspense, skullduggery, and sex. You won’t want to stop reading.”— New York Times Bestselling Author William Martin
“It’s historical romance for those who like military tactics front and center, genealogy gnarled and explicit sex scenes rare (but, uh, pretty darn explicit).” –Philadelphia City Paper
“Very entertaining.”—New York Times bestselling author Margaret George
Not bad praise for a debut, is it?
I haven’t read the story yet, but it’s sitting on my TBR. From the sneak peeks I’ve taken, I think I’m going to love it.
To learn more about Donna Thorland, to check out the fun historical extras on her website, or to read about THE TURNCOAT, go to www.donnathorland.com.
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